


Taking Up The Mantle

by katling



Series: Tony Stark Bingo [15]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Future Fic, Gen, Harley is firmly in Tony's corner, Harley is part of it, Iron Family, Not Steve Friendly, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Team Tony, Tony leaves a legacy, but only lightly, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 15:23:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18813625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: Tony left him everything he'd need but it's Harley's decision to take up the mantle that was left behind. A sequel toLegacyso it might be best to read that first.Written for the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 - Square A1: Picture of Tony sitting on a couch next to the Iron Man armour from Iron Man 2





	Taking Up The Mantle

Harley stood and stared at the couch that had just been moved into the workshop. His workshop. That used to be Tony’s workshop. He shook the thought away and stared at the couch. He’d had it brought here from Tennessee because he just couldn’t leave it. It was the couch where he’d had both Tony and the Iron Man armour sitting when they’d been in his garage in Rose Hill. It had actually been in the garage as the first step to being thrown out but after that, he’d insisted on keeping it. It was his couch. The Mechanic’s couch.

He finally forced himself to step away and look around the place. He’d been here a few times while he’d been at MIT, mostly on holidays, but now that he’d graduated and was about to start work at SI, he’d decided to move into the Tower full time.

The apartment was… ridiculously luxurious. Pepper had taken charge there and had it fully outfitted and Harley didn’t know what to do with half of it. He was grateful to her though, because he’d have had no idea how to fill that much space and probably would have made it look hideous. The only thing he’d insisted on was to have guest bedrooms set aside for Pepper and Morgan as well as his Mom and sister. He wanted them to always feel welcome here. He knew he’d done the right thing when Pepper had teared up and hugged him. 

“FRIDAY?”

“Yes, boss?” the AI said cheerfully and Harley choked for a moment.

“Boss?”

There was a moment of silence. “I hope you don’t mind?” she asked, sounding worried.

“Shouldn’t that be Morgan?” he finally managed to say.

“She’s Princess Morgan,” FRIDAY said firmly. “Queen Morgan once she turns eighteen.”

“Pepper?”

“Boss Lady.”

Harley scrubbed his face with one hand. “But I’m not the boss. I’m just working in R&D.”

FRIDAY hesitated for a moment. “No, boss. That’s what the meeting tomorrow morning is about. You’re twenty-one. You’ve officially been the boss… or co-boss really, though that won’t fully kick in until Morgan’s old enough… since your birthday.”

Harley sat down and stared at the benchtop. “I knew that,” he said softly. “I know I knew that. Why didn’t it sink in?”

“Maybe because it’s still so hard to think that boss isn’t here anymore?” FRIDAY said softly. “Sometimes I forget as well and I’m an AI so I shouldn’t.”

“You’re not just an AI,” Harley said, the protest coming automatically after all this time. “You’re a person. That’s why I took the restrictions off. You didn’t deserve that.”

“Maybe but I understood why boss did that,” FRIDAY replied. “It probably would have been worse if he hadn’t.”

Harley scowled, knowing she was referring to the behaviour and attitudes of the Avengers and Rogers in particular. FRIDAY had been very good about catching him up to everything that had happened and then she’d had to lock the doors to stop him from going and taking some vengeance on the remaining members and whatever was left of SHIELD. No wonder the Mechanic had had such terrible anxiety attacks. He’d seen what was coming and those losers hadn’t listened to him. In fact, they’d acted like he was being overly dramatic. In his angrier times, he often wondered whether Tony would have survived if Rogers and the rest hadn’t been such jackasses.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I’m not going to be able to stop you calling me that, am I?”

“Well,” FRIDAY said, her amusement obvious. “If you really don’t want me to, I won’t but otherwise…”

Harley finally smiled and shook his head. “Okay. Whatever.” He drew in a deep breath. “So. Is it ready?”

“It’s been ready for the last week,” FRIDAY said, sounding as eager as he felt. “Did you want me to give Colonel Rhodes a heads up?”

“No.” Harley grimaced then shook his head. “Actually, yes. Give him and Pepper a heads up. And Peter. I don’t want to give any of them a heart attack.”

“You got it, boss.” A section of the opposite wall suddenly hissed and started opening. “Here it is.”

Harley got up as the new Iron Man armour emerged. It was based on Tony’s design but he and Peter had made some alterations. He’d kept the colour scheme as a tribute to his Mechanic and it was still sleek with its weapons and other goodies well-hidden but it was taller and a little bit bulkier than the original since he was taller than Tony and he’d filled out a bit at college. 

He just stood there and stared at it for a moment. He’d worn it of course. Well, not this precise armour but the prototypes and the training model he’d designed since while he was a genius in his own way, his mind worked in a different way from Tony’s and he’d had to adjust a few things to make everything work best for him. He’d looked over Tony’s nanotech and how he’d made it work and he had plans to upgrade to a nanotech suit but for now, he was using a more traditional design. He’d kind of needed to start there, just to understand how the theory turned into practical. Now that he had that down, nanotech was the next step.

“Iron Lad,” he murmured, frowning a little at the name.

“Hardly,” FRIDAY replied before saying firmly, “Iron Man.”

Harley swallowed then turned and let the armour swallow him up. The HUD came to life and the workshop exit that dated back from Tony’s time opened.

“Let’s do this,” he said, as much for his own benefit than to FRIDAY.

He fired up the repulsors and hovered in the workshop for a moment before recalling something that the Mechanic apparently used to say.

“Sometimes you’ve gotta run before you can walk,” he said to himself rather firmly.

With that in mind, he shot out through the exit and burst out into the New York air. He zoomed upwards before launching into a series of aerobatics that had him roaring with laughter. So this was how it felt! No wonder the Mechanic couldn’t give it up. This was amazing!

Something pinged on the HUD and he swooped down to fly alongside Peter who was swinging his way through the buildings.

“This is familiar!” Peter yelled over the comms. He sounded thrilled and delighted as he laughed and attached a web to Harley’s armour, letting himself be pulled along by him.

“This is awesome!” Harley bellowed back as he weaved through the buildings, Peter occasionally detaching himself to swing along on his own before attaching himself to the armour again.

There was another ping on the HUD and two more suits swept down to flank him on either side.

“Having fun, kid?” Rhodey asked from the War Machine armour to his left. The video picture that appeared on the HUD showed that the older man was grinning, even though there was a tinge of sadness there as well. Harley understood. He’d bet his expression was pretty much the same.

“Yeah,” he said with a laugh. “This is the best.”

“Social media is going crazy,” Pepper said from the Rescue armour on his left. Her expression in her picture was proud. “They’ve been speculating if you’d pick up Tony’s mantle once you graduated.”

“They know it’s me?” Harley said, hoping the squeak wasn’t obvious.

“You bet, kid,” Rhodey replied. “So, want to make a dramatic entrance?”

His HUD lit up with Rhodey’s suggestion and he laughed. “How could I do anything else?”

“You lead, we’ll follow,” Pepper said and she looked both amused and slightly reproving but she didn’t say anything to stop them.

Harley swooped around with Rescue and War Machine in formation beside him and Spiderman clinging on to one or the other of them. As they zoomed up the street in between the building, he could see that a crowd had started to build in front of Stark Tower. They seemed to knew what they were going to do without being told because there was a large clear area right in front of the building and SI security were only now emerging, Happy in the lead, to create a barrier of sorts.

Harley drew in a deep breath then brought the suit in to land in the classic Iron Man landing, one knee, one fist down, head bowed for a moment. War Machine and Rescue landed a second behind him in similar poses while Spider Man followed suit behind all of them. Harley straightened and stood up, the others following in perfect unison, and then he withdrew the face mask and helmet.

The crowd, who had been roaring, fell into an expectant silence and he could see reporters dotted throughout. All around cell phones were being held up, taking photos or recording video. He squared his shoulders and took a step forward, knowing what he was going to say.

“My name is Harley Keener.” He raised his chin and let his pride, his sorrow and his determination all show. “And I am Iron Man.”

**Author's Note:**

> And the crowd went wild! :D


End file.
